(The pdf for the issue in which this article appears is available for download: Bifocal, Vol. 37, Issue 2.)
We were shocked and saddened to learn that Commission member Patricia D. Struck had passed away on December 20th. Patty was the Administrator of the Securities Division of Wisconsin’s Department of Financial Institutions. In 2005-2006, she was president of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA), the oldest international organization devoted to investor protection. She remained an active member of the NASAA Board of Directors and was serving as the Vice Chair of NASAA’s Seniors and Diminished Capacity Committee, which is developing model state legislation to protect vulnerable adults from financial exploitation. Additionally, Patty was representing the State Bar of Wisconsin in the ABA’s House of Delegates and also was an active member of the State and Local Bar Relations Committee of the ABA’s Business Law Section. She previously had served, among other things, as co-chair of the Wisconsin Fellows of the American Bar Foundation and as Chair of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Wisconsin.
That abbreviated list of Patty’s exemplary public service activities demonstrates why we nominated her to serve on the Commission and why we were so pleased when the ABA president appointed her. Her professional perspectives as a state regulator deeply committed to preventing elder investment fraud and financial exploitation and as a bar leader were of great benefit to the Commission’s work. We also benefited from Patty’s eagerness to promote the Commission’s work on elder abuse and on capacity assessment. And we benefited from Patty’s sunny and generous disposition. She was always smiling and laughing. She enjoyed a glass of wine and good food, reading, knitting—especially for her sons, and photography.
She was especially proud of a photograph taken of her this summer, standing between two of the Milwaukee Brewers Famous Racing Sausages™. ■